Francisco Solano Lopez

Francisco Solano Lopez is one of the best Argentine comic artists, who has been published all over the world. He started his career in the early 1950s at Columbia publishers in Buenos Aires. His first works include 'Perico y Guillerma'. He then joined April publishers, where he illustrated a comic adaptation of Jack London's 'Friso Kid'. For this publisher he also illustrated several series written by the legendary Hector German Oesterheld, such as 'Pablo Maran', 'Uma-Uma' and, most notable, the science-fiction series 'El Eternauta'.

He co-founded Frontera publishers with Oesterheld, and alternated on the 'Ernie Pike' series with Hugo Pratt, Jorge Moliterni and José Muñoz. Solano Lopez was also active for the British market, with several comics for the Fleetway agency and the 'Kelly's Eye' series.

In 1976 he returned to Buenos Aires, getting back to work on some of his older series ('Ernie Pike', 'El Eternauta') and starting some new (the science-fiction saga 'Slot-Barr', written by Ricardo Barrero, and the police series 'Evaristo' with Carlos Sampayo). In the 90s, Solano Lopez took on erotic comics. Big hits were 'El Prostíbulo del Terror', also with a story by Barreiro (and the two sequels about the erotic story of Lilian & Agatha), and 'Silly Symphony', a full-color series without words for the magazine Kiss Comix. Solano has received the First Prize for the Best Erotic Author in the Barcelona Erotic Salon and the Diario de Aviso's Prize for the 'Best Realistic Cartoonist'.